RU2560817C2 - Method, system and associated device for transmission of information like service - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: radio engineering, communication.

SUBSTANCE: this invention relates to mobile communication technologies, namely to a method, a system, and to an associated device for transmission of information like service. The information like service is received, recorded to an information element of a protocol level of a common service of package radio transmission of a basic station subsystem (BSSGP) or the information element of the network service presentation level of a downlink package; the downlink package is sent to a controller of the basic station; with that, the downlink package transmits information like service.

EFFECT: reduction of the number of multilevel processing of protocol stacks when the controller of the basic station receives information like service, and therefore, reduction of a load on the basic station controller.

7 cl, 5 dwg

Description

This application claims the priority of China Patent Application No. 201010264159.6, filed with the Chinese Patent Office on August 24, 2010 and entitled "METHOD, SYSTEM AND RELATED DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING SERVICE TYPE INFORMATION", which is fully incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communication technologies and, in particular, to a method, system and associated device for transmitting service type information.

BACKGROUND

In an existing mobile communication network, a mobile station (mobile station, MS) can use the general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS) in order to access the Internet. The application layer packet must be transmitted between the mobile station and the server on the Internet through the base station subsystem (base station subsystem, BSS) serving the GPRS support node (serving the GPRS support node, SGSN) and the gateway GPRS support node (gateway GPRS support node, GGSN) . The base station subsystem includes a base station controller (BSC, base station controller) and a base transceiver station (BTS, base transceiver station). The SGSN should send the current service type information of the mobile station to the base station controller, so that the base station controller performs the corresponding processing according to the service type information.

The method for transmitting service type information in the prior art mainly includes the steps of: GGSN receiving service type information for the current terminal service, recording service type information in the packet header field over the Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP ) terminal and sends the IP packet to SGSN; SGSN forwards the IP packet to the base station controller; and the base station controller parses the packet to obtain terminal service type information.

In the process of studying the prior art, the inventor discovers that the type of service information that the GGSN transmits to the BSC is carried by the packet layer IP layer information element. After the BSC receives the packet sent by the GGSN, the BSC must recover the logical link control (logical link control, LLC) information element in the packet; restore the level information element of the subnet-dependent convergence protocol (subnet-dependent convergence protocol, SNDCP) according to the information element of the LLC-level; recover the IP layer information element according to the SNDCP layer information element; and then obtain terminal service type information from the IP layer information element. The above recovery process is complex, so the load on processing the BSC is more substantial.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method, system, and related device for transmitting service type information, so that the number of packet recoveries can be reduced when the base station controller receives service type information.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for transmitting service type information, the method including:

- receiving information such as services;

- recording information of the type of service in the information element of the protocol level of the general service of packet radio transmission of the base station subsystem (BSSGP) or the information element of the level of network services of the packet downlink; and

- sending a downlink packet to a base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a method for transmitting service type information, the method including:

- recording service type information in an extended information element of a tunneling protocol layer of a general packet radio transmission service (GTP) of a downlink packet; and

- sending a downlink packet in which service type information is recorded to a serving general packet radio service (SGSN) support node.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a serving General Packet Radio Service (SGSN) support node, including:

- the first receiving unit, configured to receive information such as services;

- the first recording unit, configured to record information of the type of service in the information element of the BSSGP level or the information element of the level of provision of network services packet downlink; and

- a first sending unit, configured to send a downlink packet to the base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a Gateway General Packet Radio Service (GGSN) support node, including:

- a second recording unit, configured to record information such as services in the extended information element of the GTP level of the packet downlink; and

- a second sending unit, configured to send a downlink packet in which information of the type of service SGSN is recorded.

In conclusion, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a system for transmitting service type information including an SGSN as described above and a GGSN as described above.

In embodiments of the present invention, service type information is carried in the information element of the GPRS protocol layer of the base station subsystem or the information element of the network services layer of the downlink packet. The base station controller should restore only the information element of the GPRS protocol level of the base station subsystem or the information element of the network service provision level in the received packet in order to receive information of the type of terminal service. Compared with the prior art, in the embodiments of the present invention, the number of multi-level protocol stack processes can be reduced when the base station controller receives service type information, and therefore, the processing load of the base station controller can be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings required to describe the embodiments are briefly presented below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to these drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting service type information according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting service type information according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of a serving GPRS support node according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of a gateway GPRS support node according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and

5 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for transmitting service type information according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for transmitting service type information and an associated device for implementing the method. In order to better understand the technical solutions of the present invention, the embodiments provided in the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting service type information according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

A1. Getting information like a service.

In particular, the SGSN may receive service type information for the current terminal service.

A2. Recording information of the type of service in the information element of the level of the GPRS protocol of the base station system (GPRS protocol of the base station system, BSSGP) or the information element of the level of provision of network services of the downlink packet.

In particular, after the SGSN receives terminal service type information, the SGSN can record the service type information in the BSSGP information element or the network service layer information element of the downlink packet to be sent to the terminal.

A3. Sending a downlink packet to the base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

In particular, the SGSN sends a downlink packet to the base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

In this embodiment of the present invention, service type information is carried in the BSSGP layer BSS information element or the downlink packet network service layer information element. The base station controller should recover only the BSSGP-level information element or the network service provisioning information element in the received packet in order to receive information of the type of service of the terminal. Compared with the prior art, in this embodiment of the present invention, the number of multi-level protocol stack processes can be reduced when the base station controller receives service type information, and therefore, the processing load of the base station controller can be reduced.

In this embodiment of the present invention, since the base station controller does not need to recover the subnet layer layer convergence protocol information element in the LLC layer information element, the case of the LLC layer encryption does not affect the implementation of this embodiment of the present invention. A method for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention can be applied to the case of LLC layer encryption and can be used widely.

Additionally, in the first embodiment of the present invention, the SGSN may obtain terminal service type information (step A1) in the following ways:

(1) Receiving a downlink packet sent by the GGSN and receiving service type information carried in the IP layer information element of the downlink packet.

In particular, the SGSN receives the downlink packet sent by the GGSN, and the terminal service type information is transferred to the service type field (service type, TOS) of the IP layer layer information element header of the downlink packet. The SGSN receives terminal service type information according to the downlink packet.

(2) Receiving a terminal downlink packet, wherein the terminal downlink packet is sent by the GGSN, and receiving service type information carried in the extended GTP layer information element of the downlink packet.

In particular, after receiving the terminal downlink packet, the GGSN writes terminal service type information to the extended header information element of the GPRS tunneling protocol (GPRS tunneling protocol, GTP) layer information element and then sends the downlink packet to the SGSN wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

The SGSN obtains terminal service type information from the extended header information element of the GTP layer information element of the downlink packet.

(3) Receive a notification message regarding the type of service sent by the GGSN, and receive service type information carried in the notification message regarding the type of service.

In particular, the SGSN receives a notification message regarding the type of service that is sent by the GGSN through the GTP tunnel, wherein the terminal service type information is carried in the notification message regarding the type of service.

The notification message regarding the type of service may be a private message, and may also be an existing Gn interface message.

For a private message, in this embodiment of the present invention, a message sent from the GGSN to the SGSN can be defined, and it can be set by modeling the existing Gn interface message format, provided that the message type does not conflict with the type of the existing Gn interface message.

In addition, in this embodiment of the present invention, an existing Gn interface message may also be used, such as a Packet Data Protocol (Packet Data Protocol, PDP) context update request message (PDP context update request). When the terminal service type changes, the SGSN writes the terminal service type information to the private enhanced information element (private extension) of the PDP context update request message and then sends a PDP context update request message in which the service type information is recorded to the GGSN . After receiving the Gn message, the GGSN returns a message with a response to update the packet data protocol context (response to update the PDP context) to the SGSN, the response message indicating that the request message has been received.

Unlike methods 1 and 2, in which service type information is carried in a packet, method 3 is independent of the packet, and therefore, terminal service type information can also be sent to the BSC when data is not transmitted in the terminal.

Further, in a method for transmitting service type information according to a first embodiment of the present invention, a process in which the SGSN writes service type information to an information element of a downlink data block of a terminal BSSGP packet (step A2) may include the following methods:

(1) Recording service type information in an existing BSSGP layer information element of a downlink packet.

In particular, after receiving a downlink packet, wherein the downlink packet is sent to the terminal by the server, the SGSN can write the received service type information to the existing information element of the downlink packet, for example, the SGSN records service type information in the peak bit rate field (peak bit rate) of the information element of the quality of service profile (quality of service profile, QoS profile) of the BSSGP level of the downlink packet. The SGSN may overwrite service type information in the low byte of the peak bit rate field (16 bits).

In addition, the SGSN can also record service type information in another information element (e.g., an alignment octet information element (alignment octet)) of the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet, and the particular position of the service type information record does not intend to limit an embodiment of the present invention.

(2) Adding a service type information element to the BSSGP layer of a terminal downlink packet and recording service type information in a service type information element.

In particular, the SGSN receives the downlink packet, wherein the downlink packet is sent to the terminal by the server, adds a service type information element to the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet, and writes terminal service type information to the service type information element. In this embodiment of the present invention, when parsing a BSSGP layer information element, the downlink packet receiver encounters an unknown service type information element, skips the information element and continues to parse the next content, and therefore the new added service type information element is not may cause protocol compatibility issues.

The SGSN may add an optional service type information element (traffic information) after the subscriber profile identifier information element for RAT / frequency priority (subscriber profile identifier for RAT / frequency priority) of the BSSGP layer downlink data block and write terminal service type information to the information element traffic information. It should be noted that the SGSN can also add a service type information element in a different position, and its specific position does not intend to limit an embodiment of the present invention.

Additionally, in the method for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention, the execution process in which the SGSN writes service type information to the information element of the network service level of the downlink packet (step B2) can be implemented in the following ways:

The SGSN adds a service type information element to a network service layer of a downlink packet and writes service type information to a service type information element.

The SGSN may add an optional traffic information information element after the virtual connection identifier information element via the GPRS protocol of the base station subsystem (virtual connection identifier by the BSS, BVCI GPRS protocol) of the downlink data block of the network service delivery level of the downlink packet and record information of the type terminal services into an information element of traffic information. It should be noted that the SGSN can also add a service type information element in a different position, and its specific position does not intend to limit an embodiment of the present invention.

A method for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention is described above from the point of view of the SGSN, and a method for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention is described below from the point of view of the GGSN.

2 is a flowchart of a method for transmitting service type information according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

A method for transmitting service type information according to a second embodiment of the present invention mainly includes:

B1. Recording service type information in an extended information element of a tunneling protocol layer of a general packet radio service (GTP) of a downlink packet.

In particular, after receiving the downlink packet, the GGSN writes service type information to the extended information element of the GPRS tunneling protocol (GPRS tunneling protocol, GTP) layer information element of the downlink packet.

B2. Sending a downlink packet in which service type information is recorded to the serving general packet radio service (SGSN) support node.

In particular, the GGSN sends a downlink packet in which SGSN service type information is recorded. The SGSN may receive terminal service type information according to the received downlink packet and send terminal service type information to the base station controller. A method for transmitting service type information according to a second embodiment of the present invention may provide support for a method for transmitting service type information in the first embodiment.

The method for transmitting service type information according to embodiments of the present invention is described in detail above. An embodiment of the present invention further provides a related device for implementing a method for transmitting service type information.

3 is a schematic structural diagram of a serving GPRS support node according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

The serving GPRS support node according to this embodiment of the present invention mainly includes:

- the first receiving unit 301, configured to receive information such as services;

- a first recording unit 302, configured to record information of a service type into an information element of a BSSGP level or an information element of a network services layer of a downlink packet; and

- a first sending unit 303, configured to send a downlink packet to a base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information.

The base station controller according to this embodiment of the present invention can be used in the above corresponding method for transmitting service type information in the first embodiment. In this embodiment of the present invention, service type information is carried in a BSSGP layer information element or a downlink packet network service layer information element. The base station controller should recover only the BSSGP-level information element or the network service provisioning information element in the received packet in order to receive information of the type of service of the terminal. Compared with the prior art, in this embodiment of the present invention, the number of multi-level protocol stack processes can be reduced when the base station controller receives service type information, and therefore, the processing load of the base station controller can be reduced.

In the SGSN according to this embodiment of the present invention, the first receiving unit 301 obtains terminal service type information, which specifically includes the following:

- the first receiving unit 301 receives the terminal downlink packet, the terminal downlink packet being sent by the GGSN, and receives service type information carried in the IP layer information element of the downlink packet; or

- the first receiving unit 301 receives a notification message regarding the type of service sent by the GGSN, and receives information of the type of service carried in the notification message regarding the type of service; or

- the first receiving unit 301 receives the terminal downlink packet, and the terminal downlink packet is sent by the GGSN and receives service type information carried in the extended packet GTP layer information element.

Further, the first recording unit 302 in this embodiment of the present invention, in particular, is configured to write service type information to an existing BSSGP layer information element of a downlink packet; or add a service type information element to the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet and write service type information to the service type information element.

The first recording unit 302 writes service type information to an existing BSSGP level information element of a downlink packet, which includes: recording service type information into an information element of a quality of service profile of a BSSGP layer of a downlink packet; or recording service type information in an information element of an alignment octet of a BSSGP layer of a downlink packet. For example, service type information is recorded in the peak bit rate (peak bit rate) field of the information element of the quality of service profile (quality of service profile, QoS profile) of the BSSGP level of the downlink packet.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a gateway general packet radio service (GGSN) support node according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The GPRS support gateway node according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention mainly includes:

a second recording unit 401, configured to record service type information in an extended GTP layer information element of a downlink packet; and

a second sending unit 402, configured to send a downlink packet in which SGSN service type information is recorded.

The GPRS support gateway node according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention can be used in the above corresponding method for transmitting service type information in the second embodiment, which is not repeated in this document.

5 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for transmitting service type information according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

A system for transmitting service type information in this embodiment of the present invention includes SGSN 501 and GGSN 502.

For a specific structure of SGSN 501, refer to a third embodiment, and for a specific structure of GGSN 502, refer to a fourth embodiment.

In a system for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention, in this embodiment of the present invention, service type information is carried in a BSSGP layer information element or a downlink packet network service layer information element. The base station controller should recover only the BSSGP-level information element or the network service provisioning information element in the received packet in order to receive information of the type of service of the terminal. Compared with the prior art, in this embodiment of the present invention, the number of multi-level protocol stack processes can be reduced when the base station controller receives service type information, and therefore, the processing load of the base station controller can be reduced.

Further, a system for transmitting service type information according to this embodiment of the present invention further includes a base station controller 503. The base station controller 503 receives the downlink packet sent by SGSN 501 and receives terminal service type information according to the downlink packet, i.e. receives information such as services carried in the information element of the BSSGP level or the information element of the level of network services in the received packet.

It should be noted that since content such as information interaction between the blocks in the above hardware system and the execution processes of the blocks and embodiments of the method of the present invention is based on the same principle, regarding specific content, reference should be made to the description in the embodiments of the method of the present invention, which is not repeated in this document.

Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can of course understand that the present invention can be implemented by hardware and can also be implemented by software and a mandatory common hardware platform. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention can be implemented in the form of a software product. The software product can be stored on a non-volatile storage medium (it can be a non-writable CD-ROM, USB-drive, removable hard disk, etc.), which includes several instructions used to enable a computer device (this may be a personal computer, a receiving device or a network device, etc.) to carry out the method described in each embodiment of the present invention.

The method, system, and associated device for transmitting service type information in the present invention are described in detail above. Specialists in the art can make changes in specific methods of implementation and scope of application according to the idea of embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, the contents of this description should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Claims (7)

1. A method for transmitting type of service information, comprising the steps of:
receive service type information;
write information of the type of service in the information element of the protocol level of the general service of packet radio transmission of the base station subsystem (BSSGP) or the information element of the level of network services of the packet downlink; and
sending a downlink packet to the base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information;
moreover, the stage at which information of the type of service is obtained comprises the stages at which:
receive the downlink packet sent by the gateway support node of the General packet radio service (GGSN), and receive information such as services carried in the information element of the Internet Protocol (IP) layer of the downlink packet. 2. A method for transmitting service type information according to claim 1, wherein the notification message regarding the type of service is a request message to update the packet data protocol context. 3. The method for transmitting service type information according to claim 1, wherein the recording of service type information in the information element of the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet comprises the steps of:
recording service type information in an existing BSSGP layer information element of a downlink packet; or
add a service type information element to the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet and write service type information to a service type information element. 4. The method for transmitting service type information according to claim 3, wherein the recording of service type information in an existing BSSGP level information element of a downlink packet comprises the steps of:
recording service type information in the information element of the quality of service profile of the BSSGP layer of the downlink packet; or
write the type of service information in the information element octet alignment BSSGP-level packet downlink. 5. The method for transmitting service type information according to claim 1, wherein the recording of service type information in the information element of the network services layer of the downlink packet comprises the step of:
add the information element of the service type to the level of network services of the packet downlink and write information of the type of service in the information element of the service type. 6. Serving node support General packet radio service (SGSN), containing:
a first receiving unit configured to receive service type information;
a first recording unit, configured to record information of a service type into an information element of a protocol level of a general packet radio transmission service of a base station subsystem (BSSGP) or an information element of a network services layer of a downlink packet; and
a first sending unit, configured to send a downlink packet to the base station controller, wherein the downlink packet carries service type information;
moreover, the first receiving unit is configured to receive a downlink packet sent by the gateway support node General packet radio service (GGSN), and receive information such as services carried in the information element of the Internet Protocol (IP) layer of the downlink packet. 7. The service node supporting the general packet radio service of claim 6, wherein the first recording unit is specifically configured to write information of a service type to an existing BSSGP layer information element of a downlink packet or add a service type information element to a BSSGP layer of a downlink packet communication lines and record information of the type of service in the information element of the type of service; and
recording service type information in an existing BSSGP level information element of a downlink packet contains a service type information recording in a service quality profile information element of a BSSGP level of a downlink packet or recording service type information in an information element of an alignment octet of a BSSGP level of a downlink packet .

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